Field Trip Bag

The past few weeks have been pretty much a blur. Between sports, work, gardening, farming, etc. we seem to be crazy busy all of the time! I am pretty much in survival mode. When that happens, the first things to go are sewing and blogging. I have some things I plan on sharing with you, but I rarely fire up the old laptop or pause long enough to gather my thoughts. This is the season we are in right now and it is exhausting. About a month ago my oldest daughter went on her class field trip. At 9pm the night before the trip, she came to me with fabric she picked out and wanted to make a drawstring bag to use the next day. I am crazy; so we did.

A month later I got to benefit from that late night sewing. Last week I went on THREE field trips! (I am still tired!) Of course my daughter let me borrow her bag and it was pretty handy.

I found a tutorial HERE that we roughly followed. I used fusible fleece and it is a bit thick, so next time I will stick to interfacing. We also added pockets inside to hold deodorant, etc. when she uses it for gym class. The drawstrings are made from some extra clothesline that was in our basement. I would also make the loops a bit wider and shorter next time.

I may not blog again until school is out for the year, but I am still here and I have a lot to blog about whenever I am able to make time to write.

Charm Square Quilted Purse

Another finish!!!

I won a charm pack of Summer Breeze II several years ago and I eventually made myself a charm square tote out of it. It isn't perfect, but I like it and it matches our school colors. I had enough charm squares left over to make another one, as long as I used a solid color on the bottom to make it stretch. I pieced the squares and then it sat on the shelf above my sewing table for the last three years. I am so glad to have this one done!

The outside is free motion quilted on batting, the lining is interfaced, and the straps and pockets are made with fusible fleece. It is a nice, sturdy bag.

You can see the difference between the bag being tied at the sides and left open.

 

The pockets inside are my favorite part! They are a bit of extra work, but so great for attempting to keep my purse organized. This one is for my sister, and I think she is going to love it!!!

You can see my list of Finish-A-Long goals for this quarter HERE.

Summer Breeze Charm Tote

After sewing my little heart out for the girls last week, I was determined to finally make something for myself!  Last year, I won a giveaway at Quilting, Losing, and Tea (Thanks, Karen!).  I thought that the Summer Breeze II charm squares would make a lovely tote bag and have been wanting to make one for myself ever since.  Well, I needed some coordinating fabric for the handles and tossed around some different ideas for how I wanted to make it.  My friend, Anita, helped me out a bit with all of that and I ended up with a mish-mash of things to get this:

 

I saw a bag that she made with side ties and LOVED it! It really helps pull the bag together, but allows for more room if you need it (and let's face it, with all of these kids, I will probably need it!)  I think it will be a great size to take along to soccer and softball games this Spring (in our school colors of blue and gold! Go Eagles!!)

Lots of pockets for necessary things (I even did my first zipper pocket! WOOHOO!) and lots of room for snacks and things to entertain the kids/me. Now, I want to make a coordinating clutch or pouch to hold my embroidery projects- they are great to work on while waiting for practices and such. (Sadly, I am using a plastic sandwich bag right now.)

The handles are super sturdy- four layers of fabric and fusible fleece! My poor sewing machine!

I tried to FMQ the bag, but I can't lower the feed dogs on my machine and even if I cover them with the darning plate, I don't have the correct presser foot to make the tension work.  So, I just fought against the feed dogs. It isn't pretty and it was quite a workout, but it gives the ripply texture I wanted.

If it hadn't been for SewLux's Charm Madness Blog Hop, I probably would not have pushed myself to get it done so quickly. So... Thank you!

They have lots of great ideas over there, so check it out! I am linking up my charm square project for a chance to win a giveaway, but really, I have already won because I can cross this one off of my to-do list!

My Buttercup Bag, Modified

As promised, I am showing you all my modified Buttercup Bag. I got this LOVELY fabric like I used in my sister-in-law's purse for Christmas (I just reversed the outside and lining for mine). After making one for my daughter as a trial run, I realized the original pattern was too small for me, so I made mine a bit bigger (still a bit too small for me, but I am trying to size down from my HUGE Birdie Sling Bag). I made quite a few other adjustments from the original pattern...

I used magnetic snaps like the pattern called for this time. It was my first time using these -they are really nice! I also added a loop to hook keys or whatever onto, and added an additional pocket (on the other side) just the right size to hold a pack of tissues and my cell phone.

The biggest change I made was that I interfaced the outside and strap, and used fusible fleece to line the inside. I had to take the lining in about 1/4" to account for the bulk of the fleece, but I made sure the band and top of the lining were still the same size so that they would line up when sewing it together. It definitely made the bag sturdier, but I soon discovered that, because of the heavy fleece lining, when I filled the purse up and went to sit it down, it would flop over to one side. So, I had to add small gussets in the bottom.The busy print of the fabric hides the pleats, but it is still a great little bag! :) Unfortunately, I have decided that the purse is also too small because it makes my pregnant belly look much bigger! :)

(And I even look pretty small in this picture!)

Buttercup Bag

I am trying to use up fabric quickly. I have to move all of my sewing stuff and fabrics to another room before Baby #5 comes! Then my husband will see just how much stash I have crammed into that sewing table, there! EEK!
I saw the Buttercup Bag sewing pattern (Free! YAY!) and wanted to make one for myself. However, I need it a little bigger than that, so I enlarged the pattern. But, before I waste the beautiful fabric I have waiting for my own purse, I thought I would try out the original pattern and make one for my 5yo.

She LOVES stars and I had 1/4 yard of this fabric in pink and a little less of the same in purple that I used for the lining.

I had a little pink left over (trying to use up fabric here!), so I wanted to embellish the bag a bit. I made one of these cute fabric flowers from the directions here.
It is an adorable little bag! The flower is actually a little heavy, since it is unlined. I will definitely make mine lined with interfacing and fusible fleece. Still, a very cute bag!